Status hearing date set for Crispin Harmel capital murder case

Nicole Barrios

Wednesday

Oct 19, 2016 at 12:01 AMSep 27, 2018 at 4:38 AM

A judge on Tuesday set an April 11 status hearing for the Crispin Harmel capital murder case.

District Judge Rick Kennon scheduled the status hearing for 1:30 p.m. April 11. Assistant Texas Attorney General Nancy Nemer will act as the district attorney pro tem on the case after Kennon last week agreed to recuse Williamson County District Attorney Jana Duty from prosecuting the case. Duty’s actions during the case led to her spending time in jail for contempt of court and battling two lawsuits to remove her from office.

Kennon said in court the prosecutors are new to the case, so they needed to figure out a timeline to get them "up to speed."

Duty had requested to be taken off the case, saying in a court document that justice could only be served if the prosecutor was able to focus on the facts of the case and "not be sidetracked by discovery related issues that are not relevant to whether Crispin Harmel murdered Jessika Kalaher."

Harmel is accused of strangling Jessika Kalaher in 2009 after following her out of a Wal-Mart in Cedar Park.

His first trail in May 2014 ended in a mistrial after prosecutors revealed halfway through the trial that crucial security camera video footage from Wal-Mart had time stamps showing when the events occurred. The time stamps, which had not been provided to the defense, were at odds with the timeline of events presented by defense attorneys.

Harmel’s attorneys lost an appeal on his case, arguing he couldn’t be retried due to double jeopardy.

Harmel faces a second trial, though the date has not yet been set.

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